Post 5- Synchronicity

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Post 5

I enjoyed reading the synchronicity article and found myself humming Police songs…just kidding…sort of. I am open to “nonlinear and acausal phenomenon” as a factor in the outcomes of life (Guindon & Hanna, 2002). It made sense to me that Guindon and Hanna (2002) encourage considering synchronicity as a component of holistic counseling. For me, I viewed this idea as meeting a client “where he/she is at”. It seems like a further pursuit of a client’s unique perception of events. I think as counselors it is important to look for every avenue possible to achieve the client’s goals. I also kept thinking of the previous article on spirituality and religiosity by Duffy. Synchronicity seems spiritual to me also. It has of qualities hope and faith that are often considered helpful in career choice, decision-making and pursuit of goals. It seems to me that human beings are continuously trying to make meaning from events. I think it adds to our sense of safety and security in the world. I am interested in Eastern philosophy, and I have to admit that I do not know as much as I would like at this point. I always welcomed the Buddhist tenet of interconnectedness. In some spiritual way, I resonate to the idea that my actions and life are connected to everything and everyone else. I think we can’t help but impact others and our environment daily, in the smallest of ways. I think dreams can be very meaningful. I have had dreams that I thought was my subconscious speaking to me when it could gain an audience.

I think we can consider the first form of synchronicity this article in terms of being at the “right place at the right time”.  Guindon and Hanna (2002) say that the first form of synchronicity is a coincidence between our personal intuition and an outer event happening at the same time. I know several personal examples of this happening to people in my life. My father-in-law says that after completing his plumbing apprenticeship, he considered starting his own business –at that time a business became available to him to purchase and a friend of his father offered him a very profitable job that would pay for “start up” expenses. It all fell together and he believed he was on the right track. He has owned that business for 25 years. My Italian mother always tells me that if the universe is fighting you too hard, you are on the wrong track. The Italian side of me is quite superstitious and believes in “signs”. My own father (I just found out) was on his way to one job interview and stopped at a red signal light next to his (then, future) employer (of 28 years). He decided to turn in and find out if he could work there. He had quit his current job the day before on a “feeling”. He walked in and the man hired him on the spot. My dad says he would have never turned in there if the light didn’t turn red. He said he “just had a feeling” the day before when he quit the first job, that there was something more out there for him. By the way, that all happened on my first birthday. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers talks about highly successful people. He spend some time talking about how people are often in the right place at the right time – Bill Gates being one of them. I think this is an interesting aspect of career development. Plus I would hate to miss out on the mystical and magical of the world. :-)

Reference:
Guindon, M.H. & Hanna, F. J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of god: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, p. 195- 208.

Post 4

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Post 4 SCCN 645

The goal of constructivist career counseling seems to be - making our “self” known to us so that we may modify our own story in a skillful manner – which I thought sounded a little like CBT. I agree with the Savickas article that; “knowledge is socially constructed” (pg. 1). I like the nod to culture and society. I also like how the theories seem to be more and more dynamic. The focus of constructivist counseling seems to be on career indecision rather than satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Unless we can construe that dissatisfaction may promote some sort of indecision as to whether to remain in the same occupation or make a change. In that case, I am thinking this could also be quite effective. I am wondering if it is meant to target a specific age. I also thought it might be a good fit for the GLBT group or culturally diverse populations – although I don’t remember any reference to that in the article.

I appreciated the progression of the theory from dichotomous thinking to a more spectrum or continuum approach. I did not agree that career indecision indicates a lack of maturity or as the article states, “worse yet…pathology” (Savickas,___, p.2). I think we always need to caution ourselves against judgments as counselors. The longer I live the more I believe there are many facets to any one situation. Additionally, positive and negative attributes can be ascribed to every outcome. Take winning the lottery for example – people may readily label this a very positive event, however, upon closer reflection lottery winners have been known to experience numerous challenges after winning the lottery – even depression. Life is rarely dichotomous.

I know in my own development, I did not make a career decision until I was nearly 22. I considered when I read this article if maybe I was immature or a “late bloomer”. I decided that I was not. I lived independently from my parents in my own apartment and was financially self-supporting (key things for being an adult). Career was a difficult decision for me. I think that important decisions need careful consideration and are best not approached impulsively. I also appreciated Savickas’ point that it is equally important to not get “stuck” in the transformation.

I think it is common that individuals often consider their career to be a major part of their identity. I often hear people identify themselves as their job…I am a counselor rather than I counsel for a living. I think this topic came up on our first night of class. It makes sense to me that it would be important to discover a client’s personal narrative or life theme. I liked the notion of wavering as moving toward a goal by a process of clarification about personal narrative / life theme. I am thinking a little bit about “personal fable” in adolescence and the transformation one makes from feeling unique and disconnected to connecting and meeting individual needs within the context of the society. It seems logical that career would be an appropriate arena to meet these needs.

The role of the counselor in “connecting the past and present to the future” with meaning, understanding and the creation of new possibilities; sounds a great deal like validation and challenging we might do for other life and identity concerns. I wonder why I thought that career counseling was a distinct and unique animal from other counseling – every week I think I write about similarities.

I didn’t think the article spoke to any follow up after the rehearsal of the plan. I am also thinking that it could be possible to stumble onto something deeper for an individual when probing the life theme. During the case study I thought the woman got some positive feedback from the environment and sometimes things don’t work out like that. This could result in a referral for therapy or additional counseling.

Overall, I really enjoyed the article and approach.

Post 5

Synchronicity

            The article “Coincidence, Happenstance, Serendipity, Fate, or the Hand of God: Case Studies in Synchronicity” is unlike anything I had ever read before.  The article discusses that linear direction, development, and rationality are main components that drive career counseling; however, the idea of synchronicity seems anything but progressive or rational (Guidon & Hanna, 2002).  Instead, the idea of synchronicity seems whimsical and unrealistic. 

             Dan’s case study seems to be the most believable out of three examples given, but it still shows components of being far- fetched and impractical.  The idea that his friend had a printing press at the exact same time that he was deciding to switch career goals and have his own printing press company sounds wonderful but incredibly rare (Guidon & Hanna, 2002).  I do not believe situations like Dan’s scenario are the norm, and I certainly do not believe that one should hold out for such an opportunity.  A person would likely be waiting and waiting for that opportunity to arise, and it would never happen.  I don’t feel this would be an effective strategy, concept, or option to present to students or professionals during a career counseling session.  I think it places too much emphasis on fate and not enough on concrete possibilities.     

            Looking at the other two case study examples, a lot of emphasis was placed on dreams and their meaning in the person’s current life situation.  I think each person interpreted their dreams to coincide with their career choice and the current possibilities in their life.  I do not believe that the dream was designed to point them in that direction nor was it a demonstration of fate.  A person can provide numerous interpretations of the same dream.  Who is to say that Billie’s dream regarding the black stallion with red and black colors could not have related to a black widow spider or a new car she was supposed to purchase (Guidon & Hanna, 2002)?  To say that she was meant to take that job because of the colors and the mascot sounds illogical because certainly many other schools have similar colors or the same mascot.

            I believe having faith in things is important, and I do believe in fate; however, I am not one to quickly believe that a dream correlates with a career path in my life showing that I was meant to take that specific job.  When it comes to career counseling, I believe we should not be asking people to rely on fate or happenstance.  A person’s career is far too important to leave up to chance, and I believe more concrete planning needs to take place and interpretations of dreams should not guide a person’s decisions.  The concept of synchronicity is too philosophical for my taste, and therefore, I find it hard to support it without a scientific, fundamental basis in research and data.

References

Guidon, M. H. & Hanna, F. J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of God: Case studies in Synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50(3), 195-208.

Post #5

While reading the article “Coincidence, Happenstance, Serendipity, Fate, or the Hand of God: Case Studies in Synchronicity,” I was very conflicted by what I had been reading, and even now am confused about how exactly I feel about the article and the idea of synchronicity.  According to the article “many counselors are aware that unknowable instances of coincidence, happenstance, and chance factors can play a significant role in career opportunities” (Guindon & Hanna, 2002, p. 195). I very much agree with this statement because there are many things that happen in life that cannot be explained and that we just sum up to luck or chance. However, with that being said, I do not feel as if people should just wait around for some sort of “sign” that they are on the right path.

When reading Dan’s case study, I was completely floored by the fact that Dan resigned from his job and had no real plan of how he was going to support his family. It almost seemed as if he was waiting for some wonderful opportunity to fall in his lap. Although this wonderful opportunity did later come to him when he was able to run his own small-town press, I think that it is completely ridiculous to think that things like this often happen to people. Although this is something very lucky that happened to Dan, it would be detrimental to think that this could be a common occurrence for everyone.

Although I believe that it is important to have hope and faith that things will turn out for the better, I think that it’s unrealistic to leave your fate to chance. To me, this idea of synchronicity may be an excuse for people to sit back and wait for something important to happen.  Although my view may seem negative or harsh, I think it may be harmful to put too much focus and attention and things that may happen just as a coincidence.

All three of the individuals in the article received career counseling and according to the authors “the use of fantasy exercises, meditation, and dreams assisted these clients in reaching the transcendental ‘aha’ experience after which meaningful coincidences occurred” (Guindon & Hanna, 2002, p. 205). Overall, I do not believe that dreams and other “signs” are realistic in making career decisions. Although these types of things can give clients hope that they are headed in the right career direction, it may not be realistic to think that clients will experience an ‘aha’ moment. I believe that there are other more reliable ways for a client to receive career counseling than waiting for a “sign” that may never come.

Reference

Guindon, M.H. & Hanna F.J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of God: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50(3), 195-208.

Post #5

I really enjoyed the article this week because it sort of supported my view that things happen for a reason (as cheesy as that might sound) without being overly religious. I liked that the article gave a broad sense of spirituality and included people who may not believe in a "God", but who might just believe in forces outside of our control. At the beginning of the article I was a little confused about how these unknown forces would be applicable to career counseling, but when the authors began discussing the case studies, it became a lot clearer for me.  

In Dan's case, the coincidence of him finally going after his dream and his friend coming across a printing press was definitely, in my opinion, fate. However, I was trying to grasp how to use these unknown forces of the universe in career counseling. I like how the authors say that, "rather than seeing chance events as random and meaningless, synchronicity provides a framework for understanding and working with such phenomena when they occur" (Guidon & Hanna, 2002, p. 206). This sparked my interest because I believe many events happen in one's life and sometimes people are unaware of the connections and let these could be life changing coincidences pass them by. I like that the authors are urging counselors to open their minds and be willing to investigate the unconventional and use nontraditional techniques like meditation, guided imagery, active imagination, and dream analysis to help recognize these "coincidences",  but this still does not give me a clear direction on how to apply this to a counseling situation if these coincidence or life altering events don't happen for my client. For example, if I finally am able to get my client to recognize what would  a career that would be meaningful for them, but then noting comes along and the right job doesn't just appear when they "move to the open door", then what? While I do believe in fate and destiny, I am also realistic and know that in this economy people may not be able to wait for the "open door" because they need a job now, and they need to provide for their family. While I believe the ideas in this article are phenomenal and it is important for clients to know that sometimes these "remarkable coincidences are not necessarily accidental" (Guidon & Hanna, 2002, p. 206), for me, however, some of the applicability of this theory is lacking. 




Reference

Guindon, M. H., & Hanna, F. J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of God: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50(3), 195-208.

Blog 5

Blog 5

At first I was a little confused by the meaning of synchronicity, no matter how explicitly it was stated in the first paragraph of Guindon’s article (2002, pg 195). Do all of my blogs begin with me being confused? That’s okay, I just think that is the best way for me to address my concerns and hopefully move forward through all of the theorists we are learning about. Anyway, as I read through this article, I made the word “synchronicity” synonymous with “serendipity” in my head. When it came to applying the term to career counseling, however, synchronicity became more clearly defined as a technique to help people find the meaning in their lives or jobs instead of them just happening across an inexplicable coincidence.

My confusion dissipated (and I assumed they would more so with the promised case studies) on page 198 when Guindon wrote about the philosophical and religious background of applying synchronicity. Not only does the term have the fate-esque aspect of seemingly random events, but Guindon specifically refers to synchronicity as the “consequence” of these random events (2002). This idea began to connect with the original presentation that synchronicity can be applied to career counseling in order to open client’s eyes about their path in life because it showed that a counselor can use synchronicity (whether through guided meditation or another active method) to show a person how their life choices are connected for a reason that may lead them to what they are meant to do as a career.

I know that frequently I say that I like the current proposed theory more than the last theory we learned about because they progressively tend to focus on the individual and less on the idea of being either right or wrong in a career choice, so I am going to follow suit yet another time. On page 200 in Dan’s story, we hear all about how unhappy Dan is in his job even though it matched his Holland Code (Guindon, 2002). While I wasn’t morally opposed to Holland’s Code like I was, say, Parson’s Trait and Factor Theory, I still wasn’t completely feeling the idea that answering a couple questions about whether or not you like drumming or being a leader can determine your career path. Dan’s case study shows perfectly how there are so many factors, such as family needs, joy, and location, that need to be taken into consideration when counseling someone on their careers, and perhaps synchronicity is the one I’ve been waiting for (until I read next week’s article. . .)

Guindon, M. H., & Hanna, F. J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of God: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50(3), 195-208.

 

Blog 4

In my last blog post, I discussed how I appreciated the progression of the use of genograms in schools because as the concept was implemented more frequently, it was also tweaked to fit certain students correctly. I feel the same appreciation for Savickas’s article. In the very first paragraph I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of objectifying career decision-making. This may be quite a bit of a stretch, but the idea seemed almost communistic in its proposed idea of looking at client’s decisions as numbers and placements on a scale instead of actually looking into them personally. This thought of mine was quickly diffused when I read on to see the progression of the positivist’s theory. I thought it was very interesting how Savickas showed that it is possible to measure a client’s decision-making skills (or lack thereof) statistically while still paying attention to their individual needs. This was explicitly shown in the category titled “Indecision as Multidimensional Concept” (1995, pg. 365). In this section, Savickas shows that positivist thinkers have moved forward greatly from the archaic (my word, not his) notion that it is possible to simply place clients into the categories “decided” or “undecided” without acknowledging that the undecided people have a multitude of reasons behind their indecision, and those reasons must be explored in order to counsel properly (1995).

            I had a hard time following Savickas’s transitions between discussing the positivist perspective and constructivist one. I had to do some searching online and found an article by Andre Donnell which helped me to see that positivism has to do more with focusing on researching theories regardless of who is asking the question and who is being asked, while constructivism focuses more on individuals and their perception (1999, para. 1). While these definitions were helpful, it made me even more confused about where Savickas was differentiating between the two. I’m wondering if positivism is the theory that I really do not like and it was the constructivist view that I subscribed to.

            By the time I got to “Indecision as a Subjective Experience” (Savickas, 1995, p. 365) I was hooked on constructivism for sure. Everything I’ve said previously stands true, I am just not sure if I was using the correct term (Help, Dr.Baker!). It was fascinating to think of indecision as someone “losing their place” (1995, p. 365) instead of the claims from earlier psychologists about indecisive people being emotionally immature (1995, p. 364). This phrase was so relatable because I feel, especially at this point in my life I have a lot of friends who are feeling uncomfortable with not having a great job right out of college, or disappointed for not applying or getting accepted to a graduate school. It is a time for questioning and feeling lost, which is such an appropriate time for a career counselor to step in and give guidance.

Donnell, A. (1999). The philosophy of science and its implications for astrology.     Retrieved from http://www.aplaceinspace.net/Pages/AndrePhilosophy   ofScience.html

Savickas, M. L. (1995). Constructivist counseling for career indecision. The Career      Development Quarterly, 43(4), 363-373

Week 4

Nathan Scarbrough

Week 4 Discussion: Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision Article

                I really enjoyed the article we read on Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision.  The article addressed career indecision from a unique standpoint.  While previous research had taken an empirical and scientific approach (which I normally condone), this article made the point that career development and indecision is a subjective experience.  It is different for everyone due to their different environments, opportunities, values, and goals.  The constructivist position puts a strong emphasis on the fact that individuals have a widely varied array of life experiences, developmental paths, and critical periods in which they find themselves searching for meaning in a changing environment.

Constructivist counselors focus on meaning, not necessarily goals.  While setting goals is a necessary step in constructivist counseling for career indecision, the counselor must first help the client to recognize their own life themes, and develop a solid self-definition.  The first step of this career indecision counseling is for the counselor to encourage the client to tell stories.  While the client tells his stories, the counselor should keep an ear open for life themes and patterns regularly occurring throughout the stories.  The counselor should then help the client clarify and articulate his/her life themes, then plan ways for the client to work towards his/her goals.  After the counselor narrates the stories back to the client, the counselor and client can discuss the meaning in the stories, identify themes, pick jobs suitable for the client’s interests and values, and plan a course of action along with proactive behaviors that will help the client to achieve his/her goals.  Because the problem of indecision is rephrased in the shape of a story, it becomes easier for the client to move past their hesitancy in the interest of completing their life stories.  It is the intention of these counselors to help the client find meaning by meeting their goals and fulfilling their now identified life-themes.

Perhaps the greatest strengths of this article is that it approaches the issue of career indecision as a subjective experience, and it approaches the issue from the standpoint that this indecision is caused because the client is in a critical period of their life during which their environment is altered.  Essentially, they no longer know what they need to do to feel fulfilled.  This article is brilliant in that it doesn’t approach the issue with the attitude that all people are the same and will be satisfied in the same ways.  The emphasis constructivist counselors put, on learning about the individual, learning the individual’s unique life-themes, and developing a very personal plan of action for the client to ultimately find meaning in their work, makes this approach seem like it must have a great rate of success.  That being said, I would be most interested to see a body of research on constructivist counseling for career indecision to see if it supports the claims of this article.

Week 5 I think?

Nathan Scarbrough

Week 5 Discussion: Coincidence, Happenstance, Serendipity, or the Hand of God Case Studies in Synchronicity

                Let me stray from the norm here and admit that I very much disliked reading this article.  The authors clearly had strong views that differed greatly from my own, and while I wanted to believe there was legitimacy to what I was reading, the further I scrolled, the more I was unfortunately convinced that this article is little more than the bias opinions of an overly-spiritual author, searching for spiritual significance where there most likely was none. I think that the whole concept of synchronicity is a little bit out there for my tastes. While the author does a commendable job of citing previous theories and research, I remain unconvinced that this article truly falls under the category of “scientific.” 

                Let’s start with Dan.  To make a long story short, Dan always wanted his own small-press business.  He could not afford it, but coincidentally had a friend who happened to come across a similar business in his legal work and offered Dan the opportunity to run it.  Is this coincidence? Yes. Is it proof that these events happened for a significant purpose and were predetermined by God or fate? No.  While I am happy that things worked out for Dan, this article fails to mention the 10,000 deserving journalists world-wide with the same ambitions that never got the same opportunity as Dan. 

                Now it’s Sarah’s turn.  Ultimately, Sarah was dissatisfied with her old job, but through some career counseling managed to build the courage to seek out alternative positions.  She ends up having recurring dreams about a man in black and 2X4’s and lo and behold, when she goes to interview for a job, sees a man in black and some wood.  Is this coincidence? Debatably.  Is it an act of the divine? Probably not.  What this article fails to consider are the dreams of millions of people that are never manifested.

                Finally we have Billie.  Billie wanted a new job and money for her son to go to college.  She had dreams about a man on a horse crossing a river, and HOLY SHIT, ended up getting a job near a river with a mascot similar to the man on the horse in her dream.  It isn’t that odd that this happenstance occurred.  What is uncanny is that an academically oriented scholar found it worthwhile to write an article on instances such as these, and furthermore had the gall to compare these findings to elements of quantum physics.

                I do agree with this article that career counseling was beneficial to each of these clients.  I agree that their career decisions ultimately led them to discover a more meaningful sense of identity.  That being said, I do not think that the events of three case studies can be considered as proof of the hand of God or fate in the lives of these individuals.  Furthermore, I do not believe that these results should be generalized to the rest of the population, or that career counselors should take any extra care to be on the lookout for any instances of synchronicity within the lives of their clients.  I believe that anyone taking this advice would be committing themselves to a foolish endeavor.  It is my belief that certain types of people are more prone than others to actively search for meaningful connections where there are none, and that this desperation to label every odd occurrence as having spiritual significance hinders the progress of science. 

Post #4

              I found this article to be rather frustrating; partly because some of it was confusing, but also because I disagreed with much of what it discussed.  As it was discussing some of the history of career counseling, it was talking about Parsons and how he would categorize all of his clients in to two categories:  decided and undecided (Savickas, 1995).  This immediately struck me as odd because everyone is different and their career decisions completely unique.  I think that for a counselor to segregate individuals simply based on having made a career choice yet or not is premature.  Secondly, it went on to discuss that the goal of the counseling was to "cure" the undecided clients (Savickas, 1995).  They seemed to believe that this "indecision reflected a personality problem or defect" (Savickas, 1995).  To me this was almost offensive.  I was one of those college students that had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.  I did not have any personality defect.  For me, there were so many choices, I simply wanted to make sure that I was making the right decision and that I was choosing a career that I was going to be happy with for the rest of my life.

                As I continued to read on about Constructivist counseling, I was hoping that it was going to be better than the positivist perspective.  I was confused as to how the five steps of constructivist counseling were going to actually play out with a client and so I was looking forward to the case study portion of this article.  Sadly, I was disappointed.  The story of the girl seemed to have an obvious ending and had no career counseling in it.  To me the constructivist approach was much more emotional counseling than it was focused on her career.  I understand that your family system and history play a role in your career however I do not know how the counselor got the girl to discuss these specific stories.  To me, I did not really see the relevance of some of the stories and then the conclusion of the entire counseling experience was that she should major in Mathematics because that's ultimately what she wants to do.  I feel like I simply could have asked the girl what she really would have wanted to do and she may have said math.  There are so many people that choose careers based on their parents opinions. Obviously if she was studying premed because her father suggested it, that would absolutely be something I would look in to as a career counselor.  I am glad that the girl ended up being happy with her decision to choose mathematics and talk openly with her father, but I feel like the route to get there may not have been the most efficient.

Savickas, M.L. (1995).  Constructivist Counseling for Career Indecision.  Career Development Quarterly, 43(4), 363-73.